One of China’s most successful private businessmen,
Wu Puingai
, who is investing $700 million in Western Australia’s Ord River irrigation area, plans to spend a similar amount on Perth real estate over the next three years.

The chairman of the
Shanghai Zhongfu Group
, who has permanent residency in Australia, is looking to diversify away from Chinese property and is also seeking agricultural investments in the Northern Territory.

“We’ve done a small property project in Melbourne and our next step is Perth," he said in a rare interview on the sidelines of an Aboriginal art exhibition in Shanghai. “We are focusing mainly on commercial and residential property in Western Australia. We will invest $700 million in the agricultural project and the same amount will be invested in the property industry."

In November, Zhongfu was named preferred bidder to develop the second stage of the Ord River irrigation area, in a landmark deal for Chinese investment in Australia. It is expected to grow sugar, sweet sorghum and plantation timber and build a sugar mill which will also be able to produce ethanol.

A negotiation team from Perth has been in Shanghai this week working on the final terms of a deal, with the hope that an agreement can be put to the WA government and approved by Cabinet before the end of next month.

Mr Wu said the project was “an important transition" for Zhongfu. “We are expanding our business from property investment to agricultural development," he said. “I’ve been to Canada and the US but I think Australia suits me best. We share cultural similarities."

It is understood Zhongfu will be granted a 50-year lease with the option to extend for 25 years, pending a review. One of the sticking points in the negotiations is whether the government or the company will pay for the widening of a key water channel.

Yin Jianzhong
, chief executive of the
Kimberley Agricultural Investment
, and the man in charge of Zhongfu’s Ord investment, confirmed the company had also been in contact with the Northern Territory Government.

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But he declined to give further details about the Ord negotiations. It is understood Zhongfu hoped to secure preferential rights to the proposed expansion of the Ord scheme in the NT, but this has not been granted. The company will have to negotiate native title and other issues separately with the Territory.

Mr Yin, who dined with Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the Australian Embassy on her recent visit to Beijing, said Australia was an attractive place to do business. “There is a very good legal system, a fair market economy and it is a good environment for private business," he said.

He has visited Kununurra nine times over the past year and said he “feels very much at home there".

“To be successful in the development project, you must become part of the local community," he said.

Zhongfu, which has assets of 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) is one of the new breed of private Chinese companies which has begun to invest offshore.

While it has no government ownership, it is understood to have received offers of financing from the state-owned China Development Bank, one of the most powerful institutions within the country’s model of state-sponsored capitalism.

The CDB is tasked with financing strategic industries like new energy and agriculture and is seen as an enabler of government policies both at home and abroad.

Zhongfu will develop 13,400 hectares of land as part of the Ord project.